Court Releases Names of More NY Lawmakers Under Cloud of Corruption

Eight more names of lawmakers and others potentially involved in corruption were made public Wednesday, when a judge ordered prosecutors in the case of convicted ex- Senator Shirley Huntley to make public the names of her colleagues that she secretly recorded. WAMC's Capitol Correspondent Karen Dewitt reports.

Huntley wore a wire when talking to several other state Senators, including Senators Malcolm Smith and John Sampson, who have been charged with bribery and embezzlement. But she also recorded Senate Democratic colleagues Eric Adams, Jose Peralta, Ruth Hassel Thompson and Velmanette Montgomery, along with a City Councilman Ruben Wills, the former spokesman for the Senate Democrats, Curtis Taylor, and Melvin Lowe, identified in the court papers as a former political consultant and associate of State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Federal officials say all but one are subjects of on going criminal investigations.

The Senate had already adjourned for the week by the time the document was released. A spokesman for the Senate Democrats said, in a statement, that “this is an extremely trying time in Albany. If any charges are brought, the conference will take appropriate action.”

Governor Cuomo, who described the mood in Albany as “miserable”, says if this won’t force the legislature to adopt anti corruption measures, he might do his own investigating and use what’s called the state’s Moreland Act to empower his own probe.

“I do have the ability to act unilaterally,” Cuomo said. “But we’ll see where we are as we get closer.”

Cuomo says one way or another, he’s not letting the legislative session end without some measures taken to curb corruption.

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